We decided to go with my brother on a 7 day Caribbean cruise. A last family outing before we are gone for months around the world.

We chose the Holland America Neiuw Statendam for this trip.

Sadly Key West was replaced with Freeport Bahamas at the last minute.

We had some very old friends visit from Canada and Key West was on the bucket list. So off we went.

Key West is a fun place for 3 days or so. And it has my favorite restaurant in the world, Blue Heaven. We enjoyed the Hemingway cats and all that Key West has to offer.

We had a fantastic trip to DC, turns out there was more to come.

As we were there we met our friend’s aunt who happened to need a cat sitter for a week. We went back to DC on Oct. 30 for a week to take care of two cats and enjoy another week in that great city.

One day late in the winter or perhaps early spring of 2022 some of our favorite friends were enjoying a glass of wine or three and suddenly our future travel leader decided we needed to all go to Washington DC as a group. Several of us had never been before and others wanted to go again. There and then it was decided.

The leader and her partner decided to take on the task of finding the perfect place to stay, after all a place for 9 can be hard to find. 

They did indeed find a place, but refused to tell us any details about it. We were forced to wait until we were standing right in front of the place in October. The excitement was building.

Travel Day and the reveal